These types of cells accompany neurons and are widely used as models for studying the physiopathological mechanisms of alcohol in foetal alcohol syndrome, a disease that develops in some unborn babies when the mother consumes excessive levels of alcohol and which leads to a range of severe neurological disorders.

Previous studies have investigated transcriptional changes in mouse or rat muscle atrophied due to physiopathological conditions, but this is the first to use human tissue affected by a genetic atrophic condition.